Bucs are back: Mainland cuts down the net on the way to another final four

Mainland defeated Rickards 42-36 to advance to the Class 5A boys basketball state semifinals.

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For the second year in a row, Mainland’s boys basketball team won its final home game and then took turns cutting down the net.

The net will be added to the Buccaneers’ trophy case. They hope to add another state championship trophy too. The Bucs held off Tallahassee Rickards 42-36 on Feb. 23 in the Region 1-5A final and are headed to the state final four for the second straight year.

“It feels great,” said sophomore point guard Nate Kirk, one of four returning players from last year’s squad. “It feels even better to be able to do it with a different group.”

Kirk led the Bucs (22-6) with 14 points including four key free throws in the fourth quarter. Mainland trailed by as many as 10 points in the second quarter, but the Bucs’ relentless defense wore the Raiders (23-7) down, and the visitors were held without a field goal in the final quarter.

“We take pride in our defense. We don’t allow too many points,” said Narayan Thomas, who scored six points and pulled down 14 rebounds.

The Bucs will face Tampa Blake (25-5) in a Class 5A state semifinal at 5 p.m. March 6 at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. Miami Norland and Cape Coral Mariner will meet in the other semifinal at 1 p.m.

Mainland advanced to the state championship game last year, falling to Miami Belen Jesuit.

“To be able to come back and do it again, it just feels amazing,” Kirk said.

The Bucs trailed Rickards 19-18 at the half and made a lineup change, starting Seven Simmons in the third quarter. Simmons proceeded to hit a layup, and the Bucs led the rest of the way, although the Raiders were never out of the game.

“We got a chance to take the lead and go ahead,” Mainland coach Joe Giddens said. “And then I knew the crowd was going to be a big factor for us late in the game. So we just had to rebound. But they made some tough shots.”

A put-back by Benjamin Plummer pulled Rickards to within two (34-32) heading into the fourth quarter.

“It was very intense,” Kirk said. “They came out and hit us in the mouth in the beginning, but we came back. Our coaches kept telling us to keep it together.”

Giddens went to three final fours and won two championships as a player with the Bucs in the mid-1990s. Now he’s taking a new generation of Bucs to the final four for the second year in a row.

To go as a player three times, and then to go as a coach twice, it's priceless.”
— JOE GIDDENS, Mainland coach

“To go as a player three times, and then to go as a coach twice, it's priceless,” he said. “Going as a coach might be better than going as a player to be honest, because you know what it took to get there, and now I’m able to instill that in some other young men. It’s a priceless moment.”

At halftime, T.T. Toliver, one of Giddens’ former Mainland teammates, stopped in the locker room to give the players a few words of encouragement.

“They clapped and cheered,” Giddens said. “And I said, ‘That’s my teammate, so he knows what it takes.’”

 

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